


the darkness will always be found in those who drown

by Skullszeyes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Boys Kissing, Brothers, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, Dark Nine-Tails, Dark Uzumaki Naruto, Dubcon Kissing, First Kiss, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, I'm Bad At Titles, Light Sadism, M/M, Mild Blood, Mild Swearing, Moral Ambiguity, Mutual Pining, Not Beta Read, One Shot, POV Uchiha Sasuke, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Uchiha Itachi, Protective Uchiha Sasuke, Restraints, Slash, Uchiha Itachi Lives, Uchiha Massacre, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke Has Issues, not edited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 18:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30076605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullszeyes/pseuds/Skullszeyes
Summary: Sasuke has a mission with his brother, and Kisame, to look for the Jinchuriki of Konoha, but what he finds is something that resonates with him, although darker, much more feral, in Naruto who desires one day to destroy their home.
Relationships: Uchiha Itachi & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36
Collections: Amazing never forget





	the darkness will always be found in those who drown

**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea of Itachi taking Sasuke away, and the Leaf Village killing the Uchiha in a different way. So, Sasuke would be raised as an Akatsuki. They would go after Naruto, but things aren't what they seem. :)
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I didn't edit this. There are some dubious stuff. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

The village destroyed our family. They were killed in a single night, and Itachi had taken a six year old Sasuke into his arms and escaped the brutality of that night. They were soaked through their clothes, Sasuke gripping him tightly as he stared at the shadows that surrounded them. Itachi didn’t stop for anything or anyone as he ran through the night.

They were getting closer.

Itachi moved in different intricate ways, either jumping onto a branch and keeping off the ground, or falling with the rain and landing gracefully in the wet grass and mud. Sasuke had seen several silver flickers leave his brother’s hands when he either twisted to the side, or moved one way or other. Either way, Sasuke could see a few shadows falling into the mud, their faces covered in masks he had seen before.

Sasuke’s heart was thudding hard in his chest at what was happening to them. A few explosions had occurred far back, a way for Itachi to know how many there were and how close they had come to them.

“We’re almost there,” Itachi said, holding his brother tightly.

“What about…” Sasuke winced at the question almost leaving his lips. No. He knew better. What he had seen that night had come rushing into his mind, and he had to squeeze his eyes closed. His family was murdered, the blood washed from his body when he was so close to dying, but Itachi had been there, he made sure to grasp a hold of Sasuke and carry him out, and since then, his pace hadn’t wavered.

That night, Sasuke would never get the nightmares out of his head. He would wake up screaming after he and Itachi had met up with his _friends_. Itachi didn’t consider them friends, they were a bit too smug and inconsiderate to the night that was soaked in blood and tears.

Sasuke was six. He and his brother were now orphans, and he watched Itachi scratch out the Leaf symbol from his headband. Sasuke didn’t have a headband, and he wouldn’t have one since they don’t associate themselves with their old home. Not when the bitterness and sadness twined together for years onwards.

It wasn’t until Sasuke had hit the age of sixteen, and he was sitting on a branch, wearing one of the Akatsuki’s black and red cloaks, his head covered with a straw hat alongside his brother and Kisame.

He never thought he would come back to this dangerous and pitiful place, but here he was, and a mission no less.

Sasuke had been surprised by the order they were given. He asked Itachi about it, and even though a part of Sasuke didn’t want to come back, he had followed after Itachi and Kisame without another word.

“Careful you two,” Kisame said, smirking at them, “who knows, maybe they’d like to slaughter the last of the Uchiha’s.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him, then glanced at Itachi who didn’t seem to care about Kisame’s words, he was more interested in the village.

“We’re not here to dawdle,” Itachi said, his voice empty. “We’re here for the Jinchuriki.”

Ah, yes, the Nine-Tails. The Leaf Village’s enemy and apparent prize that was hidden in a child. Sasuke hadn’t been aware of this, and barely had memories from when he was younger thanks to his clan’s massacre. There was a blonde kid in his class, too rambunctious for him to care about all that much, but...why would he be the Jinchuriki?

Itachi and Kisame didn’t care how he became the Jinchuriki or why, they were told to take him from the village and bring him back to the Akatsuki.

“Why?” Sasuke whispered, then he, Kisame, and Itachi were on the move. They maneuvered through the air, along the branches, and on top of the walls of Konoha. A home he despised, a place he had once loved, but the blood of his clan soaked in the stone for him to ever find love for it again.

Sasuke stayed with his brother and Kisame as they walked the streets. The crowd made him bristle, and the heat had him wiping sweat from his face. He really disliked this place, the feeling trembled in his skin, making every part of him crawl with bugs that he’d need to wash off when they returned to the Akatsuki. The thought bothered him since they were days away from their home, and Sasuke could do nothing but scowl at everything and everyone.

At least until he spotted someone from the corner of his eye. He glanced over his shoulder at the familiar pink haired girl walking alongside a long haired blonde. They were giggling to one another, arms linked, shopping bags in the other hands.

“Keep your mind on the mission, Sasuke, and not on girls,” Itachi said, grasping Sasuke’s wrist and pulling him after Kisame.

Sasuke scoffed. “No...that isn’t it, she...they looked familiar to me. I've seen them before.” In class, they always gazed at him and called his name, and sometimes never stopped bothering him. Sometimes the pink haired girl would attack the blonde kid they were looking for.

His eyes were bright blue, as if they were of the sky on a brilliant warm day.

Kisame found a place for them to sit and buy a drink, and while they did this, Kisame and Itachi had time to look for any information they needed. Sasuke wasn’t allowed to wander in case he was recognized. He hated sitting and waiting while one of them walked off and returned after an hour, relaying information to one another.

“I want to do something rather than sitting around,” he said under his breath, unable to suppress the glare at his brother.

“This mission itself is delicate, Sasuke,” Itachi said, his voice low and careful, “if we make a wrong move, then the Shinobi here will come after us, and we don’t need that at the moment.”

He understood, but he wasn’t exactly patient about it either. For the next few hours, Sasuke moved around the village with Itachi and Kisame, it wasn’t until late at night when Itachi had come back. They were standing in the dark of some alley, ignoring the lights of a few streets, when Sasuke noticed the grave look on his brother’s face.

“What is it?” Sasuke asked.

Itachi glanced at Kisame, and said, “The Jinchuriki is currently underground in a hidden facility created by the ANBU, including the remnants of the Fourth Hokage.” Itachi sighed, then he took out some kind of rolled up paper and passed it to Kisame.

Sasuke was gritting his teeth, unsure of what was actually happening. Were they going to go through with the mission or...wait longer until they find their chance to get the Jinchuriki?

“Why is _it_...underground?” Sasuke asked. He recalled the blonde kid was walking around with a smile on his face, it doesn’t make sense why they would have him not spending his days pretending he was normal.

“From the report that Itachi stole from an ANBU,” Kisame said, grinning sharply, “the Nine-Tails stirred at one point, they’re unsure why, but from the emotional state of the kid...Naruto Uzumaki, they had to restrain him underground for the time being. He’s been down there for several days on the Third Hokage’s orders.”

Well, that changes things then. “We can’t do anything about...Naruto if he’s like this, he might not cooperate with us.”

“No, we can do it,” Itachi said. “I know where he is, I know how to get through it, we can do it tonight.”

Sasuke didn’t doubt his brother, and kept up with him and Kisame as they moved through the village. His brother could sense other people’s chakra quite accurately than Sasuke, and when they found the place that would lead them below the village by a few secret passages, it wasn’t until Itachi and Kisame had stopped in the middle of a narrow hall.

“What’s wrong?” Sasuke asked. Although, even with his current skill set, he could sense something was wrong, and it was coming from down the hall. It was a strong pulse of energy colliding around them, a heat he had never felt, a rage that Sasuke was aware of within himself, but this was somehow different than his own. It wasn’t built on loss, murder, and the hatred of this village, there was loneliness, abandonment, a cry twisting with the rage that came deep within the pulse.

Sasuke shivered. “Is that it?”

Itachi nodded, then he motioned to Kisame. “We’ll be able to stop the chakra, but it might be too much. If we can handle the Jinchuriki, knowing that the Nine-Tails won’t be released, then we can take it from the village.”

That was the mission, Sasuke had to remind himself, it was the mission and there was no going back.

They walked down the long narrow hall until they arrived at a wide door. Itachi did something to the seals, then the door swung open, almost setting Itachi and Kisame back by a foot, while Sasuke had to grab a hold of Itachi to keep himself steady.

The room was large and circular. There were symbols all over the place upon the ground, a few lit torches here and there, but in the center of the room laid a boy half dressed with a black symbol on his stomach. He was writhing, screaming and growling, and there was a large amount of red chakra leaking from his body.

“Well, they really did restrain him quite easily, didn’t they,” Kisame said, finding this interesting as he stepped into the room.

Sasuke shivered, still holding onto Itachi. “That’s…” It was Naruto, the blonde kid who glared at Sasuke when they were kids, the one who would get into trouble and have the teacher yell at him, and end up making all their classmates laugh at him. He was the one...full of life. What made him...go off?

Itachi and Sasuke followed after Kisame as they walked toward the Jinchuriki. The symbols around him acted as a barrier, holding him back when he twisted around on the dirt, then growled at them. His eyes weren’t the same blue he had seen when they were kids. They were red and slitted, full of uncontrollable rage.

“Do you still think we can restrain him ourselves?” Kisame asked, kneeling down and grinning at Naruto. “He seems a little...unstable.”

“You know him, don’t you?” Itachi asked, nudging Sasuke in the arm with his elbow.

Sasuke swallowed at the question, “I...didn’t talk to him, and it was when we were kids, he was…” There were rumors, so many rumors, and maybe Sasuke had seen what happened to him. Naruto was always alone, but Sasuke witnessed what that loneliness had brought him. He had held the hand of his mother, and they stood away in the shadows during the day in the market, and...he was thrown to the ground. Sasuke had winced as the boy cried painfully, then he was spit at, yelled, and cursed, and the boy would run with bloody knees, tears running down his face with a fear that Sasuke wasn’t sure he would ever feel, not until the night when Itachi had grabbed a hold of him, and escaped this wretched place.

“Kisame,” Itachi said.

Kisame took off his sword, then slashed at the barrier, the chakra was stripped away, including from Naruto’s writhing form although the chakra seeping out from him was covering his entire body again.

“He’s at a stage where we won’t be able to simply...take him,” Kisame said, taking a step back.

Itachi stared, emotionless as ever.

Sasuke wished he knew what his brother thought, what was going through his head, because right now, they stood inside a room with an unstable Jinchuriki and no barrier that protected them.

“Do you feel alone?” Itachi asked.

Sasuke blinked, glancing up, but realizing his brother was asking the Jinchuriki this.

“Do you feel uncontrollable rage for this village, for what it did to you?”

“Destroy it,” Naruto breathed, a different voice eased into his current one as he dug his nails into the dirt, growling low in his throat. “Destroy it all, they don’t deserve to live, to breathe, to cower when I have cowered.”

Sasuke trembled at his words, at Naruto’s unwavering anger that sank into the soil and stone around them. It was so akin to Sasuke when he grew up, when he moved around in his bed, then he would gasp awake during the night, unable to stop the shaking when all he could think about were his parents. His aunts and uncles, his family members. They were all dead. Their blood on the ground, covering his skin, his clothes, his hair. The rain could never drain that away from him ever.

Itachi would wrap his arms around Sasuke, whispering soft words to him, hoping to calm him down from the nightmares.

“They wanted to make sure you were safe. They love you, they will always love you, even in death,” Itachi would say as he held Sasuke in his arms, combing through his hair, wiping tears from his face.

Weeks, months, years...and Sasuke couldn’t escape the pain he felt during that night, but this was something he understood as he stared at Naruto writhing on the ground, unable to control the rage inside of him, even as he attacked them. Itachi had moved them away while Kisame cut through another strip of chakra.

Sasuke watched as the Jinchuriki had a few kunai in his skin, the blood seeped down his abdomen. He thought maybe that would be enough, but Naruto had torn the kunai out, growling low as he dropped them to the ground, and ran towards them again.

The wounds healed so quickly that Sasuke was dumbstruck at the thought of how they were going to get him to come with them.

Itachi shoved him to the side when the Jinchuriki lunged for them.

Sasuke scrambled away, reaching for a kunai as Naruto’s claws came out and barely struck him, although the force had shoved Sasuke several feet backwards, almost toppling him down onto the hard ground.

“You’re angry, right?” Sasuke asked, gritting his teeth as he dodged the next attack. “You’re lonely, you’re sad, you're unable to move past what they did to you, right?” 

He wasn’t sure what he was saying, but he needed to say something, anything, to get Naruto to calm down.

“I hate Konoha too,” Sasuke yelled, throwing a few shurikens at Naruto to get him to move back a few feet, “they took everything from me, from my family. I get it, I really do!”

The flashes of his family's dead bodies cut into him, including his mother and father. He thought he would see Itachi’s. His fear was that Itachi would be lying on the ground, covered in blood, no breath leaving his lips, and yet...he was alive. He was alive. And Sasuke would do anything to keep him alive.

Sasuke activates his Sharingan, and as he looked into Naruto’s eyes, something strange happened...he wasn’t sure what it was, but one moment he was standing before him, ready to parry another attack with his kunai, the next moment he was standing in a different large room with water covering the floor.

He backed up, unsure of where he was or what he was doing until he felt a strong presence before him. He raised his eyes toward the massive cage before him, and all there was is the red chakra, the incredibly massive strength of it was almost overwhelming until he spotted something sitting on the other side, holding the bars, and smiling sheepishly at him.

“Sweet words, aren’t they?” he asked, chuckling.

It was...Naruto.

“You’re…”

“It allows me to sit with it,” Naruto said, eyes still glowing red, and yet he was also covered in blood. The mark on his stomach was prominent, and there were wounds all over him. He didn’t seem bothered by it. “I don’t know you, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I suggest you and the other two leave me alone. The village will do what they want with me until they find someone else, and I’ll be discarded, better like that, right?”

Sasuke sneered, then he took a few steps forward, ignoring the splash of water at his ankles. “You would let them restrain you like a wild animal, you would spout hatred and do nothing? Why?”

Naruto shrugged, then he moved from the bars and walked toward Sasuke, and with each step he brought the chakra with him and it almost suffocated Sasuke who was trying to remain still. “What do you suggest? Uchiha, right? That’s what you were talking about, family dead...doesn’t seem like you’re dead.”

Sasuke almost slashed at Naruto, he could if he wanted too, he was so close, his neck easy enough to leave a deep gash. “We’re here for you. We can take you out of the village, away from the restraints, we just don’t want you—”

“Losing control?” Naruto finished, wrinkling his nose. “Pretty words, Uchiha. Really, I would love to think so much about it, but your brother is having fun keeping you alive while you’re immobile.”

Damn it. When he used the Sharingan, his consciousness had gone into Naruto, but he wasn’t talking to the Nine-Tails, so his brother and Kisame must be fighting it while Sasuke was having a lovely conversation with Naruto.

“I hate this place too. It took everything from me, from my brother...if you come with us, you won’t have to worry about anything,” Sasuke said. They _were_ pretty words, so pretty that they meant nothing. The Akatsuki wanted him for much more than just his presence, they wanted the Nine-Tails, and extracting it can kill the host.

Naruto hummed, walking around him. “Oh, there has been so many people who wanted me, who wanted to tear the Nine-Tails from my body. How about this, Uchiha, I’ll come with you if that doesn’t happen to me. I’ll come with you, and when I’m free of these restraints, I won’t kill you and your brother, ending that pretty little clan of yours.”

Naruto laughed when Sasuke lunged at him, the kunai barely grazing Naruto’s throat.

“Stop talking about my clan,” Sasuke growled.

“I can see that hatred inside your eyes, Uchiha,” Naruto said, turning his head to either side, then smiling at the ceiling. “I’ll come with you, if one day...I can destroy this village of ours.”

Sasuke was unsure, but they needed him, so he accepted. And when he blinked, he was no longer in that strange room, instead he stood in front of the Nine-Tails who was on the ground, another strong wave of red chakra enveloped his body, including Sasuke’s.

“Come with me,” Sasuke said, reaching his hand out. The violent red chakra began to fade, and was replaced by a feeble blue of Naruto’s who stared at him, a smirk on his lips as he grasped a hold of Sasuke’s hand and pulled himself to his feet.

“It would be so easy, Uchiha,” Naruto said slyly.

Sasuke wasn’t entirely sure if they should keep Naruto alive for long. “My name is Sasuke.” He turned on his heel and walked past several shurikens and kunai lying in the ground, and stood in front of Itachi and Kisame. The both of them didn’t look out of breath as they stared at him.

“He wants to destroy this village one day, I told him he can,” Sasuke said.

“What an interesting arrangement,” Kisame chuckled.

Itachi stared at Sasuke. “Does he know anything?”

“He suspects, but he’s more interested in…” Sasuke trailed off, unable to suppress the shiver running through his body. Naruto’s voice was smooth, calm, and easy, as if he was okay with the idea of ending the lives of thousands of people. Sasuke hated the village, but if anything...he would rather not come back, not kill people of that magnitude.

It took a bit longer to take Naruto from the village. Mostly because he wanted to go back to his apartment, and he was also wearing a bright orange coat. He barely liked to listen to any of them, and by the time they were walking out of the village, Sasuke was watching Naruto while Itachi and Kisame stayed several feet behind to make sure they weren’t followed.

“You’re an idiot,” Sasuke sneered. “You’re too flashy, loud, annoying—”

“I do enjoy the flirting, Sasuke, I really do, but maybe shut up,” Naruto said, eating a plastic bowl of ramen he bought before they had left. It wasn’t as good as Ichiraku’s apparently, but it had to do.

Sasuke growled, wanting to hit Naruto, but they had to stay calm in their situation. The last time they left Konoha, they were pursued for several days until they managed to lose them.

“Hey, when do I get a cloak of my own?” Naruto asked, pulling at Sasuke’s who almost stumbled close to him. “By the way, you’re really pretty.”

Sasuke flushed, biting his lip from cursing Naruto. He hadn’t expected to talk to anyone like him, and as the night wore on, and he noticed Itachi and Kisame weren’t behind them anymore, and it didn’t seem Naruto cared either way. He was getting tired, and was sore from rolling around in the dirt below Konoha. His chakra was also exhausted thanks to Kisame cutting through it a few times.

The sun was rising, and Naruto’s blonde spikes were bright, which had Sasuke trying to get him to wear a straw hat over his big head.

“I don’t like it,” Naruto said, pouting at Sasuke as they stood between a few trees off the path.

“I don’t care, you’re too much of a target,” Sasuke said, fixing the hat. And while he was fixing the hat, Naruto winced, and Sasuke looked into Naruto’s eyes, almost losing himself within the beautiful blue.

There was a bit of pink on Naruto's cheeks, he chuckled nervously, and then he ended up tripping over a root behind him, and the idiot had to grab a hold of the front of Sasuke’s cloak, yanking him down with him.

“For fuck sak—” Sasuke’s eyes widened as he stared into Naruto’s eyes. Their mouths were touching awkwardly. Sasuke gasped, shoving himself up, face warm, heart thudding.

“No, it’s okay,” Naruto smiled, grasping a hold of Sasuke’s arms, and rubbing them reassuringly, “it’s okay, we can kiss.”

“Shut up, Naruto,” Sasuke said, unable to rid the warmth away from his skin, or the feeling of Naruto’s mouth on him.

Naruto was laughing as Sasuke scrambled off of him, “I said it was okay. And sorry, I wasn’t trying to kiss you.”

Sasuke frowned, looking away from him and trying his hardest to stare at something else. The kiss...was his first. The unfairness of it came from a boy he didn’t know, someone who was going to end up dead in the near future, and the one who held a hatred that was almost rotting from within him. And he was his first damn kiss.

Sasuke sighed at those awful thoughts.

“That was my first if it makes you feel better.”

Sasuke groaned, placing his hands over his face. “Are you serious?”

Naruto laughed again, “Don’t tell me...that was also your first, Sasuke? With the way you look, I’m sure someone managed to kiss you, I wouldn’t have thought it would end up being me.”

Sasuke glared at him, and Naruto continued laughing, blue eyes twinkling in the sunlight as he kept the straw hat on his head.

“I’m sure I’ll have someone else kissing me,” Sasuke mumbled, trying his hardest not to care since he really didn’t. He never thought of kissing anyone until Naruto’s mouth was on his. And it wasn’t even an impressive kiss either.

Naruto brushed himself off, “Nah, go on living with no one kissing you, then I’ll always be your first.” He smiled at Sasuke who did nothing but glare at him.

“The first person that shows up—”

Sasuke was twisted around at the sight of Itachi and Kisame walking back over to them, but what shocked him the most was Naruto pushing him against a tree and kissing him again.

His eyes were wide at Naruto who was also staring at him, his blue eyes were so fathomless that he might even like them more than the red that overtook them.

“I think your brother is seducing the Jinchuriki,” Kisame whispered to Itachi.

“Whatever gets them to hurry up,” Itachi said, turning away from them and walking off.

Naruto moved back, “Couldn’t have you finishing that sentence, or you’ll end up kissing your brother or that shark looking dude that keeps taking my chakra.” Naruto stepped past Sasuke and hurried after Itachi and Kisame.

Sasuke’s face was warm, his heart racing again from the kiss, and how much he actually really enjoyed it. He let out a sigh and followed after them, unsure of their future, if there would be one with Naruto, and what would happen with the rage that was alive inside of them.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't want this to go on for too long. Tbh, it wasn't supposed to be this long. :/ I got out of hand for a second. LOL. There probably would be more stuff I'd like to add, but oh wells. :) And of course, I added their first kiss. :D I wanted an ambiguous ending because in canon, they can't get over each other, so they probably will make a bond, and Naruto won't die and want to kill everyone, and Sasuke will cling to Naruto because why not, he likes kissing him. ♡
> 
> I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Comments and/or Kudo's are appreciated.


End file.
